’2 Guns’ star Bill Paxton back with a vengeance

NEW YORK — As a playful Bill Paxton sauntered into an interview room, he couldn’t help but comment on the rows of chairs filled with polite members of the waiting press.

“Good Lord,” he said smirking as he looked around at the scene. “Is this a revival meeting?”

It’s more like a Manhattan hotel news conference to promote the action comedy 2 Guns.

The film stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, who play separate undercover agents trying to deal with the aftermath of robbing a bank presumably used by a Mexican drug lord (Edward James Almos) and Paxton’s shifty CIA operative.

Paula Patton portrays Washington’s handler and love interest, who might not be telling him the truth. James Marsden is the Navy commander with an illegal agenda. Fred Ward plays an admiral more interested in a coverup than catching the bad guys.

There’s no question Washington and Wahlberg drive the story, but Paxton enjoys a notable presence in the movie after taking a sabbatical from the big screen for a few years.

In a way, Paxton’s right about the revival reference: 2 Guns is his mini-rejuvenation in the movie game.

Mind you, it’s not like he’s been living off his impressive past reputation in cinema.

He led the way in HBO’s critically acclaimed show Big Love, playing Bill Hendrickson, the loving Morman husband of three wives (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin) from 2006 to 2011.

The 58-year-old also earned an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Randall McCoy in the History Channel’s recent miniseries Hatfields & McCoys starring Kevin Costner.

When 2 Guns director Baltasar Kormákur, a big Paxton fan, made him the offer to play the slick but deadly Louisiana operative by the name of Earl, the actor jumped at the opportunity to shape his character.

“I felt like a kid at Christmas,” he said of the challenge shortly after his revival observation.

Of course, Kormákur wanted to meet Paxton before he sealed the 2 Guns deal, and the actor was enthusiastically all for it.

“I showed up in character and in a complete western suit,” said Paxton who remembered that the director had a peculiar look on his face when he first arrived at the meeting.

“I thought he might be a little crazy,” Kormákur said.

The Earl portrayal needed a little crazy so it seemed to work out just fine for everybody involved. “My feeling is that Earl is Baltasar’s favourite character,” Paxton said, “so he was living vicariously through me.”

Paxton reported to the 2 Guns Louisiana set raring to go only to find out that on his first day he was squaring off in a pivotal sequence with the Oscar-winning Washington, who had been hard at it for weeks.

“It was a little nerve-racking,” he said, smiling at his understatement. “You know, Denzel’s not a bad actor.”

Days later, though, Paxton was in the Earl groove underplaying the evil — “It was more of an exercise in restraint,” he said — rather than exaggerating the antagonist role.

“I am former Texan so I could handle Earl’s Louisiana accent,” he said. “I made it sound like honey coming out of my mouth. Sometimes, I was even aping (playwright) Tennessee Williams from recordings I had heard.”

He’s never been your typical actor and for good reason. He started his career as a set dresser for Roger Corman on many of his B-movies.

Later he studied with renowned acting coach Stellar Alder in New York.

He had an early success playing the bad brother Chet in John Hughes’s teen flick Weird Science. “I guess I will never live that down.” But eventually he made the adult transition with One False Move.

Paxton went on to co-star in some memorable 1990s films, including Tombstone, True Lies, Aliens, Titanic, Apollo 13 and starring in the big hit Twister.

In between, he directed some films and entertained himself with parts in independent features including A Simple Plan, which earned Billy Bob Thornton a supporting Oscar nod.

And 2 Guns, he figured, is a return to his old form.

“I came up doing interesting supporting roles so this was very comfortable for me,” Paxton said.

Like Washington and Wahlberg, he’s also a true believer in getting the job done without a lot of method to his acting madness.

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